St. Anthony Prevails Against Notre Dame

Anyone who came to see whirling dervish St. Anthony High guard Darrick Martin do his thing witnessed just what they wanted Wednesday night. Darrick the Daring gave everyone a few pointers on how to play point guard.

Martin, a six-foot senior who has signed with UCLA for next season, put on a clinic against Notre Dame. He stole a pass for an easy layup. He popped in a three-pointer from somewhere near the lobby. He tossed in a routine, 15-foot jumper. And he did it all in the first six minutes, 40 seconds, because, by then, he also had collected three fouls to go with the clips for his career highlight film.

St. Anthony did not collapse in his absence, however, and the bench came through while Martin assumed a different first-half role--cheerleader--as St. Anthony defeated Notre Dame, 74-56, in a second-round game in the Simi Valley Tournament at Simi Valley High.

If Notre Dame was ever going to make a run, it should have been while St. Anthony’s prime mover and shaker--who still finished with a game-high 21 points--was sitting courtside.

“That’s when we should have made our move,” Notre Dame Coach Mickey Cady said. “But they held us off.”

Even with Martin benched, St. Anthony managed to take a 31-26 lead at the half.

With Martin around to start the third quarter, St. Anthony extended the lead to 53-40 heading into the fourth quarter. Martin scored 10 of his points in the third and spent most of the rest of his time feeding passes inside to center Daren Baptiste, who finished with 20 points, eight in the third.

St. Anthony closed out Notre Dame for good in the opening moments of the fourth quarter. After the Knights scored the first three points to close to within 53-43, St. Anthony reeled off 14 points to take a commanding 67-43 lead.

Bruce Heicke, an All-Del Rey League guard, had a team-high 19 points for Notre Dame (0-1). Jim Cashman added 11. Notre Dame played without injured starters Ed Cogan and Brian Jones.

St. Anthony (2-0) will play Simi Valley in a semifinal game Friday night at 8.

Simi Valley 112, Hart 73--It took a little less than three minutes for first-year Hart Coach Greg Herrick to realize he was in for a very long evening.

After Simi Valley (2-0) had jumped to a 12-2 lead with 5:02 left in the first quarter, Herrick barked to nobody in particular: “This looks like a Simi Valley highlight film.”

Simi Valley, ranked No. 1 in the Valley by The Times, waltzed to leads of 25-4 and 38-8 before the substitutes came in and Hart drew closer. The Pioneers led, 58-35, at the half.

It did not get much better after intermission. When Simi Valley took a 94-52 lead on Don MacLean’s alley-oop layup with 6:24 left, Herrick pointed a finger at Simi Valley Coach Bob Hawking and said “That’s B.S.”

After the game, Hawking and Herrick got into a shouting match at center court before Hawking shook his head and walked to the locker room.

Simi Valley hit the 100-point mark for the second time in two games with 5:30 remaining.

Forward Shawn DeLaittre scored 18 of his 25 points in the first half. MacLean, who scored 30 points in a 100-64 win over Saugus in the first round, finished with a game-high 28 points.

Santa Clara 71, Dos Pueblos 46--In a second-round game, Art Santana scored a game-high 17 points to lead the Saints into a semifinal game against Santa Barbara on Friday night at 6:30.

Kwame Joyner scored 14 and Bubba Burrange added 13 points for Santa Clara, which raised its record to 2-1.

Dayne Peyratt led Dos Pueblos (0-1) with 14 points, followed by Tim Kelly with 12.

In another game, Santa Barbara defeated Chilliwack of British Columbia, 89-38.